Massive Fire At Ft. Myers Airport (RSW) in FL Makes A Bad Situation Worse
Yesterday’s huge fire at Ft. Myers airport (RSW) in southwest Florida makes a bad situation worse. During a time when travel-related business are hurting, this doesn’t help. Further losses of customers and the additional losses of property/funds won’t help an already hurting industry.
What Happened?
Family members in the area told me about the massive fire. They first noticed it when they could smell the smoke coming in the windows, even living 20 miles away. Looking in the direction of the airport, they could see the huge billow of smoke. So what happened?
The cause of the fire is unknown. No matter how it started, it was made worse specifically due to 2 things. 1 – the low travel happening right now means the rental car agencies have a ton of cars on hand. These cards would normally be rented out, but they’re at the airport. The rental agencies used overflow parking on the grass nearby to store the cars. 2 – due to a lack of rain recently, the grass is dry. Perfect for a fire to spread quickly.
Check out the video from local news below:
What Was Affected?
So far, no planes or the terminal itself were damaged. Planes closest to the fire area were moved to another part of the runway/terminal to avoid risk. However, over 3,500 cars were damaged. Flights were canceled. Passengers were prohibited from entering the airport area.
At a time when rental agencies and airlines are hurting for business, losing any more customers really hurts. Losing cars hurts businesses. Sure, they can file insurance claims, but this is just one more bruise on hurting industries.
Final Thoughts
At a time when travel-related business are already hurting, this only makes it worse. The fire at Ft. Myers airport in southwest Florida comes at a bad time. Not that there’s a good time for a fire, but it’s combined with the already damaged and hurting rental car businesses, airline companies, impacted employees, etc. A surplus of rental cars that need to be put somewhere plus putting them on super-dry grass during a dry season made the perfect recipe for a giant fire at the Ft. Myers airport. Stay safe out there everyone!
See more coverage here: Fox News, Cape Coral Daily Breeze, WINK News
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No doubt parking a hot car in the dry grass is what caused this catastrophe… smh
Possibly but yet to be confirmed.
I was recently furloughed by a major car rental firm at RSW my heart is broken I don’t know about our rival companies but I know we are self insured this means we have to cover the losses ourselves I love my company they’ve been good to me and didn’t deserve this they had to park in the field because of recent events my thoughts and prayers to them
That’s sad to hear. Always had a good experience at RSW and even have done some one-way rentals from RSW over to FLL, MIA and even MCO.
Did anyone consider parking them on the pavement in Long Term Parking until there’s demand for those parking spots and the rental cars again?
I’m sure “this space is available and isn’t eating up something we could make money from” was in the original equation for parking on the grass.